Pat Williams: wound up, ready to quote

MANKATO - What some might view as bulletin-board material, Pat Williams simply considers trash-talking fun.

Thus, it comes as no surprise that the Pro Bowl nose tackle provided Yahoo! Sports NFL columnist Michael Silver with some choice quotes when it came to the Vikings' regular-season opener on Sept. 8 at Green Bay.

"I'm going to try to crush all of 'em," Williams told Yahoo! "That's been the focus of my whole summer -- the Green Bay Packers."

Williams also was asked about the Brett Favre saga the Packers had been through. "Damn, that's their problem," he said. "They're going through all that as a team, trying to figure out if Favre or [Aaron] Rodgers was the man, while we've got the same team we had all offseason. I'm glad they got all that darn press, 'cause when we go down there it'll be the kid's first start and his first damn loss."

Williams has made inflammatory comments before -- he called Chicago center Olin Kreutz "a big joke" in 2005 -- and this won't be the last time he does it.

"I was basically having fun with it because we played pretty bad and got embarrassed" the last time the Vikings played at Green Bay, Williams said Wednesday. "They beat us 34-0. That was the only running back that got 100 yards on us. So we're just having fun with it, but we're serious with it, too. It's just reading material. They've got all this negative stuff going on with the news about everything else [in the world] so we just want to have fun."

The part that Williams takes very seriously is the Packers' Ryan Grant being the only running back to run for more than 100 yards against the Vikings' top-ranked rush defense in 2007.

Williams admits he and fellow Pro Bowl tackle Kevin Williams have talked about what Grant did when he went for 119 yards and a touchdown on 25 carries.

"That ain't going to happen Monday night [in the opener]," Pat Williams said. "Trust me it ain't going to happen. I've got everybody focused."

As for Pat Williams' comments, coach Brad Childress said he doesn't necessarily let statements by the nose tackle slide, but in this case he doesn't seem bothered.

"I don't know that I necessarily value judge who it is [saying things]," Childress said. "I know when I think it doesn't look right. Some people you can tell, 'Hey, don't do that,' and some people you let go. You don't want anything too outrageous. I'm not a bulletin- board guy. You let your play do the speaking for itself. By and large I'd say that's the way I approach it. I haven't talked to Pat about it."

Offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell said he thought things "went well" Friday as he worked from the sideline for the first time. Bevell previously called plays from the press box but has switched spots with quarterbacks coach Kevin Rogers.

Bevell said he had two main concerns going into the Vikings' preseason opener. One was having the proper communication in place because it can be difficult to see things such as the exact spot of the ball.

The other was not getting caught up in the emotion of the game at field level. That's important because while Bevell likes the freedom of being able to talk to players, he also needs to be thinking about the next offensive series.

"I thought our communication was good," Bevell said. "Obviously the first game, as you go out there, you learn a few things. I thought we did a nice job with that."

Bevell will be back on the sideline for Saturday's game at Baltimore.

• Safety Tyrell Johnson (abdominal strain) returned to practice Wednesday after missing the previous two days. Veteran safety Darren Sharper dressed for Wednesday's lone full-team practice but did almost no work. Sharper said afterward he was fine.

• Receiver Robert Ferguson was treated by trainers because of the hot conditions during the morning practice but said he was fine.